By snoadmin
There are many athletes who have become synonymous with their sport: Kobe Bryant and basketball, Tiger Woods and golf, and Andre Agassi with tennis.
Cal State Long Beach alumnus Dwight Stones has become synonymous with the high jump, setting the world record eight times in his career. Stones was a force to be reckoned with during his days as an athlete, and still holds the indoor and outdoor high jump records at LBSU.
While Stones never actually graduated – he was hired by CBS in his last year of eligibility (1976) for the LBSU track and field team – he maintains a very successful broadcasting career, covering major track and field contests all over the nation.
After attending UCLA for one year and taking a year off to train for the 1972 Olympics, Stones joined LBSU track and field. Although Stones only competed at NCAA and at the indoor and outdoor conferences, his teammates elected him team captain during his senior year, a proud moment for Stones.
“I was very flattered,” he said. “It showed that they truly accepted me as part of the team.”
During the year he was elected as captain, Stones competed in all of the LBSU duel meets, in addition to the NCAA meet and conference championships.
“It was the best thing I ever did to prepare for the Olympics,” Stones said.
Stones competed in three Olympic games: 1972 in Munich, Germany; 1976 in Montreal, Canada; and 1984 in Los Angeles. He went on to take the bronze medals in the Munich and Montreal games.
Stones was only 18 when he competed in his first Olympics in 1972. Ironically, Germany predicted Stones would finish in second place, while the United States predicted him to finish in tenth place. Because of this, Stones was determined to win the medal.
“I was like the Barack Obama of track and field,” he said “I was young and I had no experience. My own country didn’t even think I could medal.”
Stones went on to jump 7’3” to clinch the third-place spot and tie the world record he had already set for his age group at the Olympic trials.
Stones began his broadcasting career in February of 1977 when CBS hired him to cover the Los Angeles Times Indoor Invitational in Inglewood. What the producers didn’t know was that Stones was to compete and report on the same meet.
“If you jump poorly, don’t blame it on us,” a producer told Stones.
It was an added pressure that didn’t phase Stones.
“I pursued an individual sport because I liked the idea of being completely dependent on myself for my success and failures and that I never blamed anyone else when I occasionally performed poorly,” he said.
Stones ended up winning the event with a jump of 7’4” and did the voiceover early the next morning for the other events he was to cover.
Stones has broadcasted every Summer Olympics for NBC since Los Angeles in 1984. Additionally, he has covered the cross-country skiing, biathlon and Nordic combined events at the Salt Lake City (2002) and Torino (2006) Winter Games. Stones is currently contracted with NBC Sports to cover the upcoming Beijing, Vancouver and London Olympics.
Stones also coaches the high jump team at Beckman High School in Irvine.
